RS Components announces the first Community Choice award winner in the ‘DesignSpark chipKIT™ Challenge'

RS Components (RS), the trading brand of Electrocomponents plc (LSE:ECM), the world's leading high service distributor of electronics and maintenance products, has announced the first of two Community Choice Award winners as part of its ongoing DesignSpark chipKIT™ Challenge, an online competition to promote energy-efficient electronics design for embedded applications, which is due to close at the end of March. Using the award-winning free DesignSpark PCB software tool from RS and the Digilent chipKIT Max32? development platform featuring the 32-bit PIC32 microcontroller from Microchip Technology, engineers, students and hobbyists are encouraged to create designs that will increase energy-efficiency in electronic systems while maintaining an eco-friendly footprint. The panel of judges, comprising design engineers and experts, combed the DesignSpark website to evaluate the chipKIT Challenge Community Choice Award for the Most Creative Project Proposal. Brian Connell from South Africa was selected as the winner with his project for a ‘Hydroponics Water and Nutrient Control System.' To win this accolade, the participant was required to submit a creative project proposal, provide progress updates and use tools within DesignSpark to support the design. He will receive a voucher worth $100 exchangeable for products ordered from RS Components/Allied Electronics, plus a one-year digital subscription to Circuit Cellar and Elektor magazine, media partners for the competition. "Since we launched the competition in late November last year, over 1,800 participants have entered the competition globally and the quality of entries has been outstanding, covering a vast array of technology areas, from Data Acquisition and Robotics to Energy Harvesting, Automation and Control/Smart Home," said Mark Cundle, Technical Marketing Manager at RS Components. "We congratulate Brian on his innovative project and encourage engineers to join the challenge and create original, useful designs for reduced energy consumption in embedded system applications." The winner of the second Community Choice Award for the Most Popular Project will be announced during March and the final winners of the $10,000 total cash prize, including a $5,000 first prize, will be revealed in May 2012. The closing date for entries is 27 March 2012. Further details and registration for the DesignSpark chipKIT challenge are available at: chipkitchallenge.com